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Altering Alter: Crumb & the Translator

Sunday, September 13, 2009

As I noted in my Bookforum review, one way to appreciate the awe-inspiring craftsmanship of Crumb’s The Book of Genesis Illustrated is to pay attention to his handling of the translation. Crumb relied heavily on Robert Alter’s 1996 translation, a very interesting choice. A major scholar of Hebrew, Alter has been much influenced by Walter Benjamin’s thinking about translation. Benjamin argued that translators should not try to create a false illusion of fluency but rather should try to act as a bridge to the original language, bringing along some of the strangeness of an alien syntax and diction. Following Benjamin’s program, Alter has given us a Genesis that sometimes feels very foreign, hardly English at all but rather an English/ancient Hebrew hybrid. (Parts of the book are available here, via Google books).

Crumb followed Alter not blindly but with care. Occasionally the cartoonist reverted to the more sonorous and familiar language of the King James translation. At other times, he simplified or straightened out Alter’s word. Below some passages from Alter’s translations set next to Crumb’s reworking, along with some notes. I think the comparison will be of interest to many people: Bible buffs, translations junkies, and Crumbites.

Genesis 7:11

Alter: “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day,

All the wellsprings of the great deep burstand the casements of the heavens were opened.”

Crumb: “In the six-hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day, all the wellsprings of the great deep burst and the windows of the heavens were opened.”

Alter: “And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew and all the goods they had gotten and the folk they had bought in Haran, and they set out on the way to the land of Canaan, and they came to the land of Canaan.”

Crumb: “And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew and all the goods they had gotten and the people they had bought in Haran, and they set out on the way to the land of Canaan, and they came to the land of Canaan.”

“People” is a blunter term for slaves than “folk.” Visually, Crumb’s slaves look fairly miserable as well. Alter’s comments on slavery occasionally have an unfortunate note of whitewashing apologetics. See in particular his footnote on this very passage: “Slavery was a common institution throughout the ancient Near East. As subsequent stories in Genesis make clear, this was not the sort of chattel slavery later practiced in North America. These slaves had certain limited rights, could be given great responsibility, and were not thought to lose their personhood.” This may well be true, but ancient slavery was still very cruel, as Crumb brings out in his art.

Genesis 16:5

Alter: “And Sarai said to Abram, ‘This outrage against me is because of you! I myself put my slavegirl in your embrace and when she saw she had conceived, I became slight in her eyes.”

Crumb: “And Sarai said to Abram, ‘This outrage against me is because of you! I myself put my handmaiden in your lap and when she saw she had conceived, I’ve become diminished in her eyes!”

“Lap” is more visually suggestive than “embrace”. Throughout, Crumb describes Hagar as a “handmaiden” rather than “slavegirl.” In doing so, he’s following feminist scholar Savina Teubal, who sees Hagar as a major matriarchal figure.

Genesis 19:14

Alter: “And he seemed to be joking to his sons-in-law.”

Crumb: “And he seemed to his sons-in-law as one that mocked.”

Genesis 19:28

Alter: “And he looked out over Sodom and Gomorrah and over all the land of the plain, and he saw and, look, smoke was rising like the smoke from a kiln.”

Crumb: “And he looked out over Sodom and Gomorrah and over all the land of the plain, and he saw and, behold, smoke was rising like the smoke from a kiln!”

Crumb is fairly free in his use of exclamation marks.

Genesis 20:12

Alter: “And, in point of fact, she is my sister, my father’s daughter, though not my mother’s daughter, and she became my wife.”

Crumb: “And, in point of fact, she is my sister, my father’s daughter, though not my mother’s daughter … and she became my wife.”

A very minor change: a comma becomes three dots.

Genesis 25:18

Alter: “In defiance of all his brothers he went down.”

Crumb: “In the face of all his kin he went down.”

Genesis 25:23

Alter: “And the Lord said to her:‘Two nations – in your womb,two peoples from your loins shall issue.People over people shall prevail,the elder, the younger’s slave.”

Crumb: “And the Lord said to her… ‘Two nations – in your womb, two peoples from your loins shall issue! One people over the other shall prevail, the elder the younger’s slave.”

Genesis 26:8

Alter: “And it happened, as his time there drew on, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out the window and saw – and there was Isaac playing with Rebekah his wife.”

Crumb: “And it came to pass, when he had been there for some time, that Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out the window and saw … and there was Isaac frolicking with Rebekah, his wife!”

Genesis 30:2

Alter: “Am I instead of God, Who has denied you fruit of the womb?”

Crumb: “So, then, it’s me, not God, who has denied you fruit of the womb!?”

Genesis 33:8

Alter: “What do you mean by all this camp I have met?”

Crumb: “What do you mean by all these droves I met on my way here?”

Genesis 34:1

Alter: “And Dinah, Leah’s daughter, whom she had born to Jacob, went out to go seeing among the daughters of the land.”

Crumb: “And Dinah, Leah’s daughter, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see some of the the daughters of the land.”

“Borne” seems to be a spelling mistake on the part of Crumb. “Went out to go seeing” is awkward, so Crumb turned it into standard English.

Genesis 34:3

Alter: “And Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the land, saw her and took her and lay with her and debased her.”

Crumb: “And Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the land, saw her and took her and lay with her and defiled her.”

Genesis 34:7

Alter: “And Jacob’s sons had come in from the field when they heard, and the men were pained and they were very incensed, for he had done a scurrilous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, such as ought not be done.”

Crumb: “And Jacob’s sons came in from the field as soon as they heard, and the men were pained, and they were highly incensed, for he had done a despicable thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, a thing which ought not to be done.”

This is fascinating. Thanks for posting these examples. Almost invariably, Crumb's alterations make the text more readable and accessible– which I'd wager was a driving motivation for illustrating the Bible in the first place.